Socially assistive robots for teaching emotional abilities to children with autism spectrum disorder

Socially assistive robots, when used in a way that takes into consideration children’s needs and developmental characteristics, can be useful tools to enable children’s development. More specifically, due to their characteristics (predictability, simplicity, and repetition) robots can be especially helpful to teach emotional abilities to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous research has provided preliminary evidence that robots can help children improve in some domains such as joint attention and imitation. However, no studies have examined how robots can be integrated in intervention protocols targeting the acquisition of emotional abilities in children with ASD. This paper presents a work in progress on an emotional ability training developed for children with ASD using the QT socially assistive robot. This training aims to test whether children with ASD can benefit from a robot-mediated training to improve emotional ability.